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Among Polya's four phases of problem-solving, the first one says that you have to understand the problem first, and these are some of the questions you should ask yourself:

"What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition? Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?"

I'm having trouble trying to figure out what "condition" means in this context, and what does a redundant or contradictory condition look like? I'm sorry if this doesn't seem like a worthy question, but I couldn't find the answer anywhere else and I really want to understand this.

Rishikesh Sharat
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  • Suppose you work under the assumption that you live in this reality and you believe the statement "If a unicorn exists then the world is magical."

    Now the question: "Do wizards exist?" I will let you determine the condition.

     – Jacky Chong Jan 25 '20 at 07:35
  • @JackyChong Do you want me to add a condition to the question? or are you saying that there's a condition that's implicit in the question and i have to figure it out? – Rishikesh Sharat Jan 25 '20 at 08:00
  • The latter. The condition is in the statement I believe. – Jacky Chong Jan 25 '20 at 08:03
  • Sorry for asking too many stupid questions, but does the world being magical imply that wizards can exist? or am I not allowed to assume anything other than "If a unicorn exists, then the world is magical"? – Rishikesh Sharat Jan 25 '20 at 08:08

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